Improvement in glass buttons



. SMITH Glass-Buttons Patented Jan. 28, 1873.

Gawain/ ar AM. PHOTOiITHOGRAPH/c on MY (osaonus's macs) UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALBERT M. SMITH, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN GLASS BUTTONS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 135,375, dated January 28, 1873.

.To all whom it may concern:

. Be it known that I, ALBERT. M. SMITH, of Brooklyn, county of Kings and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Glass Button, of which the following is an accurate description:

My invention relates to making a button of a vitreous substance and combining with it a metallic back, for increasing its strength so as to prevent it from breaking when in use, and at the same time embedding in it a flat shank, all at the time of pressing the button, by which I produce a button vastly superior in strength to those heretofore made, and one that will lie close to the cloth to which it may be sewed, like the common lasting button.

Figure 1 is a view of the under side of the button Fig. 2, of the face side of the back; Fig. 3, of the under side of it.

The back, Figs. 2 and 3, is made of wire woven in the same manner as cloth, and usually termed wire-cloth, or of perforated or corrugated metal, so as to allow the glass, while in a hot plastic state, to be forced or squeezed through or into and become riveted in the holes or apertures or corrugations, it being sufficient ly yielding, as I have found by experience, to

allow of the shrinking of the glass in cooling. The eye or shank of the button, as at a, Fig. 1, is formed of a separate piece of metal, the

ends of which pass through the meshes b b, Fig. 3, or holes of the back, and are stretched or extended out toward the edges of the button, as at c c, Fig. 2, thus forming a very flat eye, and by its lateral extension, when pressed into the button, together with the back de scribed, materially strengthens and braces the fragile glass.

The button is attached or sewed on by passing the needle through the eye from d to d, Fig. 1.

By the above construction I produce a glass button nearly of equal durability with one composed wholly of metal, yet possessing the luster of one wholly of glass, and much less expensive than a metallic button.

Having now clearly set forth my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

As an improved article of manufacture, a glass button having a back of wire-cloth, perforated or corrugated metal, and a flat shank, both embedded in it by pressure when in a hot plastic condition, thus strengthening the glass and supporting the shank.

ALBERT M. SMITH.

Witnesses:

GEo. L. Fox, FREDERICK A. Fox. 

